1 Twining vines (orange, yellow, or greenish); leaves reduced to scales

1 Shrubs or trees; leaves present and well-developed.

  2 Leaves deciduous; flowers unisexual; [tribe Laureae].

    3 None of the leaves lobed; medium to large shrubs.

      4 Leaves 4-16 cm long, 2-6 cm wide, obovate, ovate, or broadly elliptic

      4 Leaves 1.2-4 cm long, 0.5-1.5 (-1.9) cm wide, narrowly elliptic

  2 Leaves evergreen; flowers bisexual; [tribe Perseeae].

        5 Leaf surfaces glabrous, bright green; leaf venation either 3-nerved from at or near the base of the blade or pinnate; crushed leaves with the odor of camphor

          6 Leaves with 3 main veins from near then base (these with 0-2 obvious lateral veins); principal vein axils with yellow, thickened, and pubescent domatia visible on either the lower or upper surface of the leaf; buds with bud scales

          6 Leaves pinnately veined (the 2 lateral veins with obvious and 3 or more lateral veins); principal vein axils lacking domatia; buds lacking bud scales

        5 Leaf surfaces pubescent to glabrate or glabrous, dark to medium green; leaf venation strongly pinnate; principal vein axils lacking yellow domatia; crushed fresh leaves with the odor of bay.

             7 Leaves mostly more than 15 cm long; drupe > 5 cm long

             7 Leaves less than 15 cm long; drupe < 3 cm long.

               8 Leaf lower surface moderately to densely pubescent with ascending or appressed hairs (in some species these so appressed or small as to need 10× magnification to reliably detect); fruiting pedicel and cupule remaining tan or turning somewhat reddish; [collectively widespread in the Coastal Plain and rarely more inland provinces]

               8 Leaf lower surface glabrous; fruiting cupule and/or pedicel turning bright red at maturity; [of s. peninsular FL only].

                 9 Fruiting cupule not flanged; fertile stamens 9 (+ 3 glandular staminodes), the anthers 4-celled

                 9 Fruiting cupule with a prominent circumferential flange near the rim; fertile stamens 3 (+ 3 glandular staminodes), the anthers 2-celled

1 Shrubs or subshrubs.

  2 Leaves 1-2 (-4) cm long, 0.11-0.3 (-0.5) mm wide, each with > 40 terete lobes; plant white or silvery-gray; inflorescence an involucrate head

  2 Leaves longer and/or wider, with a few to many flattened (< 30) lobes; plant green; inflorescence various, but not as above.

    3 Leaves > 6× as long as wide, the 14-30 lateral lobes evenly arrayed from leaf base to leaf apex; fresh plants strongly aromatic; leaf surfaces dotted with golden-yellow glands, and also pubescent

    3 Leaves < 4× as long as wide, the 2-12 lateral lobes either evenly arrayed from leaf base to leaf apex, or strongly basally oriented; fresh plants not aromatic; leaf surfaces variously pubescent, but lacking golden-yellow glands.

      4 Leaf blades 4-30 cm long; leaf lobing evenly from base to apex, or predominantly towards the tip of the leaf; flowers small, in catkins

      4 Leaf blades 2-7 cm long; leaf lobing predominantly basal (hastate, or with larger basal lobes becoming smaller and more like serrations towards the apex); flowers larger, in various diffuse inflorescences.

        5 Leaves hastate, with 2 acute basal lobes, merely serrate towards the apex; [exotic species, of s. GA southward]

        5 Leaves lobate towards base, the lobes rounded in outline, progressively less lobed towards the apex, becoming doubly serrate upwards; [native and exotic species, collectively widespread]

1 Trees.

          6 Leaves even-pinnately lobed, with 4 (or sometimes 6 or 8) lobes, the apex a very broad V-notch or truncate

          6 Leaves odd-pinnately lobed, with 3, 5, 7, etc. lobes (or sometimes with 2 lobes, but one obviously central and the other smaller and to the side, mitten-like), the apex obtuse to acute.

             7 Leaf lobe margins entire.

               8 Leaves shallowly or deeply 3-25-lobed; fruit either an acorn or a rather fleshy spherical multiple fruit; fresh plants not aromatic.

                 9 Leaves shallowly or deeply 3-25-lobed; fruit a nut in a cupule (an acorn)

                 9 Leaves shallowly 3-lobed (or mostly unlobed); fruit a rather fleshy multiple fruit

             7 Leaf lobe margins serrate.

                   10 Leaves irregularly toothed, the teeth tipped by a soft bristle; fruit a nut in a cupule (an acorn); small to large trees

                   10 Leaves evenly and rather finely serrate, not bristly-tipped; fruit at least somewhat fleshy, either a pome or a multiple of nutlets surrounded by a fleshy calyx; small trees.

                     11 Petals absent (the individual flowers inconspicuous and aggregated into catkins); fruit a multiple, of nutlets surrounded by a fleshy calyx (mulberry) or a syconium (fig); leaves mainly larger, at least some on a branch > 8 cm long

                     11 Petals 5, conspicuous, white or pink; fruit a pome; leaves mainly small, generally < 8 cm long